1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed toward systems and methods for global positioning, and more particularly to techniques for triangulating a location of a mobile node within a communications network.
2. Description of the Related Art
A trend in the transportation industry is to utilize cost-effective communication and networking systems to communicate with traffic controllers located at or near street intersections. The traffic controllers are typically in operative communication with or comprise traffic lights/signals, surveillance cameras, sensors, detectors, etc., one or more of which may be housed in field traffic cabinets at or near the intersections. The communication systems may implement Ethernet and Internet Protocol (IP) based field communications or the like to communicate with and interconnect signalized intersections. An example of a widely utilized control system is a Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, which is a computer system for monitoring and controlling one or more processes.
The communications infrastructure associated with such control systems provide the opportunity to implement triangulation techniques to determine the location of network nodes (e.g., mobile nodes) within a given geographic area. However, the communications infrastructure may be vulnerable to attack or abuse from unauthorized intruders, e.g., “hackers” or insiders operating outside their authority, gaining access to the system using stolen or “cracked” security information or using authorized devices. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a cost-effective system and method for determining the location or position of mobile and/or static network nodes, while at the same time ensuring the security of communications with such nodes.